Lived Experience

Defined and Critiqued

Bibliographic Data

ID5824489
AuthorsPaul J Casey (0000-0002-4753-6211, Holy Family University, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume24
Issue3
Pages282-297
Publication date2023-07-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCritical Horizons (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1440-9917 • E-ISSN: 1568-5160
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14409917.2023.2241058
OpenAlexW4385739337
LanguageEN
Citations received15
References cited11

From social media to the halls of academia all the way to the White House, everyone is talking about "lived experience". Yet, there is considerable confusion about what, precisely, the term means. Part of this confusion results from the lack of awareness about the origin of the term and the philosophical need that it was introduced to address. Accordingly, the first aim of this essay is to elucidate the meaning of "lived experience" by teasing out and enumerating its various features as found in the thought of Wilhelm Dilthey, who first developed and popularized it as a philosophical concept. The second goal is to critique the use of "lived experience" in contemporary academic and political discourse. Lived experience is simultaneously denigrated by those who regard it as merely subjective and exalted by those who regard it as epistemically authoritative. A return to Dilthey's original formulation reveals that both of these attitudes are predicated on misunderstandings of the nature of lived experience.KEYWORDS: Lived experienceWilhelm DiltheyErlebnis; HermeneuticsEpistemic deference Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 McIntosh and Wright, "Exploring What the Notion of 'Lived Experience' Offers," 450.2 Davey, "Lived Experience," 326.3 Gadamer, Truth and Method, 61.4 Tuttle, Dilthey's Philosophy of Historical Understanding, 16.5 Makkreel, Dilthey, 147.6 Rickman, "Introduction," 29.7 Jay, Songs of Experience, 11.8 Lash, "Experience," 335.9 Jay, Songs of Experience, 11.10 Gadamer, Truth and Method, 61. It's also worth noting that Dilthey tended to use the nouns Erlebnis and Erleben interchangeably.11 Jay, Songs of Experience, 11.12 Gadamer, Truth and Method, 63.13 Jay, Songs of Experience, 95.14 Jay, Songs of Experience, 11.15 Dilthey, Introduction to the Human Sciences, 342 (emphasis in original).16 Hodges, The Philosophy of Wilhelm Dilthey, 321.17 Dilthey, Introduction to the Human Sciences, 330.18 Dilthey, Introduction to the Human Sciences, 330.19 Dilthey, Introduction to the Human Sciences, 330.20 Davey, "Lived Experience," 327.21 Dilthey, "Appendix," 493.22 Dilthey, "Ideas about a Descriptive and Analytical Psychology," 89.23 Dilthey, "Appendix," 500-501.24 Lash, Experience, 2.25 Dilthey, "Fragments for a Poetics," 223.26 Dilthey, "Construction of the Historical World," 184 (emphasis in original).27 Hodges, The Philosophy of Wilhelm Dilthey, 38 (emphasis in original).28 Dilthey, Introduction to the Human Sciences, 274.29 Dilthey, Introduction to the Human Sciences, 262.30 Makkreel, Dilthey, 148.31 Dilthey, Introduction to the Human Sciences, 330.32 Makkreel, Dilthey, 217.33 Makkreel and Rodi "Introduction to Volume I," 9.34 Davey, "Lived Experience," 327.35 Makkreel, Dilthey, 8.36 Dilthey, "Fragments for a Poetics," 228.37 Dilthey, quoted by Hodges in The Philosophy of Wilhelm Dilthey, 57.38 Dilthey, Introduction to the Human Sciences, 50.39 Dilthey, "Fragments for a Poetics," 226.40 Dilthey, Introduction to the Human Sciences, 298-299.41 Dilthey, Introduction to the Human Sciences, 50.42 Gadamer, Truth and Method, 61.43 Dilthey, Introduction to the Human Sciences, 317.44 Davey, "Lived Experience," 328.45 Turner, "Dewey, Dilthey, and Drama," 35.46 Dilthey, quoted in Schmidt, Understanding Hermeneutics, 38.47 Dilthey, "Fragments for a Poetics," 227.48 Turner, "Dewey, Dilthey, and Drama," 35.49 Dilthey, Introduction to the Human Sciences, 345.50 Dilthey, "The Construction of the Historical World," 239.51 Bruner, "Experience and Its Expressions," 7.52 Dilthey, "The Understanding of Other Persons," 137.53 Turner, "Dewey, Dilthey, and Drama," 37.54 Ricoeur, "The Narrative Function," 278.55 Ricoeur, "The Narrative Function," 278 (emphasis in original).56 Hodges, The Philosophy of Wilhelm Dilthey, 120. A few pages later, he adds, "understanding after all is only a transference of lived experience" (Hodges, The Philosophy of Wilhelm Dilthey, 125).57 Dilthey, "The Construction of the Historical World," 229-230. See also, Dilthey, "The Understanding of Other Persons," 137.58 Davey, "Lived Experience," 326.59 Klouda quoting Dilthey in "Wilhelm Dilthey," 39.60 Dilthey, "The Rise of Hermeneutics," 249.61 Dilthey, "The Rise of Hermeneutics," 248-249.62 Klouda, "Wilhelm Dilthey," 44.63 Nussbaum, Cultivating Humanity, 88.64 Simone de Beauvoir, quoted in Kruks, "Women's 'Lived Experience'," 84.65 Lewis, An Experiment in Criticism, 141.66 Kind, "Bridging the Divide," 255.67 Siegel, "Introduction," 8.68 Scott, "The Evidence of Experience," 797.69 Hodges, The Philosophy of Wilhelm Dilthey, 147.70 Gadamer, Truth and Method, 302 (emphasis in original).71 Táíwò, "Being-in-the-Room Privilege," fourth section

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